The Natural History of Pliny, Volume 6 (of 6)

Burns are cured by applying ashes of calcined sea-crabs or river-crabs with oil: fish-glue, too, and calcined frogs are used as an application for scalds produced by boiling water. The same treatment also restores the hair, provided the ashes are those of river-crabs: it is generally thought, too, that the preparation should be applied with wax and bears’ grease. Ashes, too, of burnt beaver-skin are very useful for these purposes. Live frogs act as a check upon erysipelas, the belly side being applied to the part affected: it is recommended, too, to attach them lengthwise by the hinder legs, so as to render them more beneficial by reason of their increased respiration.339 Heads, too, of salted siluri340 are reduced to ashes and applied with vinegar.

Prurigo and itch-scab, not only in man but in quadrupeds as well, are most efficaciously treated with the liver of the pastinaca341 boiled in oil.